Eyewitness Anatoly Hlushko told CEN: "He was hilarious and impossible to ignore, he seemed very excited about the action and was smashing the skateboard left and right and running into everyone.

"It was also panting like a steam engine and suddenly people who seemed to focus on the building were grabbing their mobile phones to film the hilarious dog."

Sam is reportedly famous in Odessa for his radical tricks, but appeared to be without his owner. It is thought he was at a local park but ran off when towards the noise from outside the City Hall.

The distraction allowed the small team of security guards at the venue extra time to secure the building, leading to some misleading reports that the dog had actually been employed by officials to distract protesters.